1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to heat sink technology and more particularly, to an adjustable heat sink assembly, which comprises a heat-sink base formed of a thermo-conductive bottom panel, a thermo-conductive top panel and a plurality of heat pipes, a plurality of elevation-adjustment fasteners adapted to fasten the heat-sink base to a circuit board and adjustable to keep the thermo-conductive bottom panel in positive contact with a heat source at the circuit board, and a plurality of pitch-adjustment joining the thermo-conductive bottom panel and thermo-conductive top panel of the heat-sink base and adjustable to change the pitch between the thermo-conductive bottom panel and the thereto-conductive top panel and to keep the thermo-conductive top panel in positive contact with an external thermo-conductive object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of computer technology, powerful, high-speed, inexpensive computers and related products with large capacities (such as desk computer, notebook computer, tablet PC, PDA, etc.) have been continuously created. In consequence, computer related applications have also been well developed. As clock frequencies in digital circuits and voltage applied increase, the heat generated by components running at the higher performance levels also increases. It requires more cooling to avoid damaging the hardware by overheating. Many heat sinks have been created for the purposes of cooling computer components (such as CPU, microprocessor, chip, monolithic chip, etc). However, due to limited internal space, an electronic apparatus may have no extra space for accommodating a cooling fan for cooling electronic components. In this case, the applied heat sink may be directly bonded to the inside of the housing of the electronic apparatus and kept in contact with the heat source at the circuit board. Alternatively, aluminum or copper columns may be connected between the circuit board and housing of an electronic apparatus for transferring waste heat from the circuit board to the housing of the electronic apparatus. In actual practice, conventional methods have drawbacks as follows:    1. The use of aluminum or copper columns as thermo-conductive media between the circuit board and the housing of the electronic apparatus greatly increases the weight of the electronic apparatus. Further, the aluminum or copper columns are not shock absorptive, and the electronic apparatus and/or its internal components may be damaged easily upon an impact.    2. Setting aluminum or copper columns as thermo-conductive media between the circuit board and the housing of the electronic apparatus causes the presence of a gap between the circuit board and the housing of the electronic apparatus, and waste heat can easily be accumulated in this gap.    3. The precision of the size of the aluminum or copper columns is critical, and a size deviation may complicate the installation between the circuit board and the housing, affecting quality control and lowering product reliability.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a cooling design for electronic apparatus that eliminates the problems.